Music in the Baroque era

In music history, the Baroque era refers to the period of Western classical music circa 1600–1750.As a testament to his legacy, the Baroque era is generally considered to have ended with the passing of Johann Sebastion Bach. The Baroque era was preceded by the Renaissance era and was followed by the Classical era.

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• constant motion.

• structured around harmony and chords

• one basic mood throughout a section or movement

• to support the mood, elements are often repeats. beaten into the ground.

• music for and by the rich. sounds fancy lol.

• can be divided into early middle and late. we will focus on the late baroque era.

• almost always a steady beat

• strings are dominant

• terraced dynamics: more instruments for more volume. at the time single instruments couldn't really handle playing more quietly or more loudly

• basso continuo: baroque rhythm section. cello or bassoon + keyboard instrument

  • equivalent in modern rock is guitar + bass + drums

• early baroque was largely homophonic but mostly polyphonic later

• this is time in which instrumentation really blows up. music is written instrumentation-first.

• more chromaticismsm. notes outside of key

• ambiguous notation from the time leaves a lot of room for performer improvisation

• italy was the musical center of europe during the baroque era

• opera became a thing!